Wanderer
by Anxia
Summary: Where is there home for the wanderer?/Where is there peace for the warrior-child?/Where is there comfort found welcome again/in hearts that have learned to run wild?


Wanderer  
  
A.N: in case you really wanted to know, a BRLLIANT Lord of the Rings story inspired this. Er, well, more like the thing that inspired that story inspired this one. For some reason, I thought of Eiko after reading this...so, hear it is. My first Final Fantasy IX fan fiction, so please be kind.  
  
  
  
Where is there home for the wanderer?  
  
Where is there peace for the warrior-child?  
  
Where is there comfort found welcome again,  
  
In hearts that have learned to run wild?  
  
- "Solace", Kara O'Niell  
  
~*~  
  
It was the horn that often threw her off; the odd mix of purple and green that were found in her eyes and hair did not make things any easier, as Lady Hilda often explained, but she should really try finding accessories to match a large, yellow horn one day and she how she liked it.  
  
The tip pricked the veil that covered her face; at the moment, she wanted nothing more than to rip the cursed thing off her face, but she would have to wait until a large enough hole had been formed to provoke a frustrated cry from Hilda, who would rip it off herself. Cid really didn't care either way, just as long as the body suit she had worn on her ever-so-epic adventure across Gaia, Terra, and back was never seen again.  
  
She was sixteen now; the same age as Princess Garnet when she first met her, and ever since that meeting, she had wanted nothing more than to reach that age which her eyes was sacred.  
  
In a way, she even resembled Garnet, now - her hair was long, even more so than Garnet's, [and often put up into elaborate styles, as Hilda liked] and her features fair enough.  
  
How very ironic, though...now that she had everything she ever wanted, she wished with all of her heart for it to be taken away?  
  
She missed it. It had been hard to admit at first - the very idea had seemed like the most idiotic thing she had ever though - but now she wanted it BACK, to seem the cold air of twilight sting her numb fingers, the adrenaline surge through her as large, callused hands threatened to rip the small loaf of bread from her fingers. Now, she would never again feel the pain of starvation, or even see another twilight. Not that it was a bad thing, of course. In fact, it was quite the opposite. But, all the same.  
  
Eiko Carol was not meant to be treated as if made of glass, kept behind bars at all times. She could take care of herself well enough, and did not need for a contact scrutiny to be kept upon her at all times, ready to catch her if she fell.  
  
But it wasn't all pain, no, being alone - there was the thrill of causing mischief of all forms at Conde Petie, and of knowing that the death of that monster, which had seem once seemed powerful beyond all reason and now so disgustingly fragile and weak, had been caused by HER. Rather childish [and sadistic, as Cid would say] joys, but was she not a child herself?  
  
She was not meant to be a ruler - Lindblum had never known the hand of a female regent, both Cid and Hilda had instructed her, and there was bound to be objection and possibly even rebellion. She would have to be prepared - she would have to be ready to lead her people, to care of them as if they were children, but treat them as adults - it was a careful balance between being a good ruler and bad, and even though many men tried their hardest, they were never accepted by their people, and in the end paid for it.  
  
She was not MEANT for it. That was not meant to be the ending of her story - still a child and not yet a woman, never a woman, she already knew that she was not meant to be buried in a tomb deep under the palace of Lindblum, among now nameless kings and queens, and have an image of her while still in life gawked upon by people who wonder who this woman was, and why she had a horn. Truth be told, she would rather die in obscurity - to be an enigma, a vital figure in the history of Gaia who would forever elude the understanding of scholars and historians.  
  
She had changed since childhood. She knew that paradise was not what it was said to be, and that a life of luxury and shelter was no life for a warrior, even one in the form of a child. She was spoiled, she knew - she wanted what she could never have, and the moment she step foot out into the cold once again, she would want once again the comfort of Cid's arms and the beautiful dresses of Hilda's.  
  
But she could dream, could she not? 


End file.
